Puppet MastersS


MAGA

Trump Effect Continues: Panama Bends The Knee, Will Not Renew 'Silk Road' Deal With China After Rubio Visit

trump
The Trump administration is not messing around.

Let's review. In the past thirteen days;
  • Elon Musk's DOGE descended upon the US Treasury and revealed that we've been 'auto paying' all sorts of bad actors, including terrorist groups. DOGE then kicked the door down at Deep State slush fund USAID, where employees were placed on paid leave last week for trying to circumvent Trump's orders, causing a massive Democrat freakout.
  • Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent a worldwide cable announcing the end of DEI policies within State, prioritizing American interests, and told his Chinese counterpart that America is done kowtowing.

Putin

European leaders will 'wag tails' for Trump - Putin

US President Donald Trump.
© Joe Raedle / Getty ImagesFILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump.
Opponents of the new US leader's political trajectory within the bloc will soon be brought to heel, the Russian president believes

The EU has always taken its political cues from Washington and will continue doing so with Donald Trump in office, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. Despite some EU leaders actively opposing Trump's election, the newly inaugurated president "will restore order" and bring the bloc to heel "quite quickly," Putin believes.

The Russian president made the remarks on Sunday in an interview to Russia-1 TV journalist Pavel Zarubin.

Comment:
And all of them, you'll see, soon all of them will stand at the master's feet and gently wag their tails," Putin argued.
Here the EU leaders are compared to "something" that can wag a tail. There is much truth in this description.

For another accurate evaluation, recall that Victoria Nuland, the US 25th Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, in 2014 became know for her: "F**k the EU". It also described the overall relationship, as it was then rather well.

If Being a US 'ally' means silently watching your own destruction how many leaders in the EU understand that, not to mention resist it?


Bad Guys

Flashback Black box: Global censorship hub NED reached agreement with State Department to conceal government grants from the public

CIA NED national endowment for democracy

Comment: Since this article was published, Trump's administration has begun ripping the lid off that black box. This piece is a sobering reminder of how bad things are.


SUMMARY
  • The National Endowment for Democracy is a grantmaking organization that receives substantially all of its $300 million annual budget from the State Department's congressional appropriations.
  • In recent years, investigators and watchdog groups like FFO have faced difficulty locating NED's grantees and projects, despite NED having a federal mandate to operate openly and share grantee information with the public.
  • Audits of the NED for FY 2021, 2022, and 2023 reveal NED continuously failed to publish grant project information publicly, violating the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act.
  • NED entered an unusual agreement with their Department of State Grants Officer to label the entirety of their $315 million congressional appropriation for 2024 "sensitive," allowing them to hide all U.S. taxpayer-funded NED grantee information and activities from the public.
  • NED rebuffed an offer from the State Department to review its subgrantees on a case-by-case basis, removing another layer of democratic oversight from its activities.
  • It expects to never be subject to ordinary transparency requirements again, with taxpayers almost completely in the dark about how its $300-million budget - which has been used in the past to advance a global regime of online censorship with blowback against Americans - is spent
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has since at least 2021 failed to comply with transparency requirements regarding the more than $300 million of taxpayer funding it receives from the U.S. Department of State, potentially violating federal regulations under 22 CFR 67.4 and the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA).

In recent years, NED failed to take any corrective action regarding failures to report their grantmaking activities publicly. NED's Financial Report for FY23 reveals that NED and Department of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) leadership assessed these transparency failures to "determine a long-term resolution."

Comment: Between Trump's cutting off of funds and Musk's DOGE intention to go through government spending with a fine-tooth comb, it's not likely that the NED will be able to survive as an organization, at least in its present form.




SOTT Logo Radio

SOTT Focus: NewsReal: Trump Transition Turbulence: TWO Air Accidents - Plane Madness

washington plane helicopter collision philadelphia jet newsreal
© Sott.net
Two air accidents a couple of days apart, one in the heart of Washington DC, the other in Philadelphia... one may have been an accident, but both? Also on this NewsReal, tense times in the Senate as Trump's MAGA nominations - RFK Jr, Tulsi Gabbard and Kash Patel - are grilled, and trouble on the horizon for empire-lovers as Trump's tariffs kick off in earnest.


Running Time: 02:19:06

Download: MP3 — 127 MB


Bullseye

Gravy train derailed: Has Trump's executive order just crippled the global US regime change network?

USAID workers
© Gustavo Castillo / THE TIMEUSAID workers in Venezuela in 2019
With federal funding paused to USAID, pro-Western media outlets from Ukraine to Nicaragua are panhandling for donations, and a multi-billion dollar regime change apparatus is in panic mode.

Among the flurry of executive orders issued by President Donald Trump in the first days of his administration, perhaps the most consequential to date is one titled, "reevaluating and realigning US foreign aid."

Under this order, a 90-day pause was instantly enforced on all US foreign development assistance across the globe - excepting, of course, the largest recipients of US aid in Israel and Egypt. For now, the order forbids the disbursement of federal funding for any "non-governmental organizations, international organizations, and contractors" charged with delivering US "aid" programs overseas.

Arrow Up

Trump slaps 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, 10% on China

TrumpTariffs
© pgurus.com/KJN"Still friends?"
On February 1, the Trump administration will slap 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, and a 10% tariff on China, as announced during Friday's press briefing by White House spox Karoline Leavitt, denying reports of a delay to March 1.
There will be no delay, selective targeting, or slow roll-out of phased-in tariffs as speculated by Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank. That said, there could be certain exemptions - such as for oil and gas, which Leavitt did not elaborate on. For now, all we have to go on is Trump's most recent comments on oil.

Dollar

Trump's DOGE claims $1 billion saved on cancelled DEI programs

Musk arms
© Christopher Furlong/Getty ImagesTesla, SpaceX and X CEO Elon Musk
The US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), created by President Donald Trump and led by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, has announced that it has managed to save over $1 billion thanks to the elimination of contracts related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

The agency posted the breakdown of federal government savings on Friday via its official X account. The published index lists off 30 federal bodies, stating that 104 contracts with a "ceiling value" of over $1.2 billion were eliminated as part of Trump's move to scrap DEI initiatives.

DOGE was initially proposed during Trump's presidential campaign last summer and was later established as a presidential advisory commission. Despite its name, the agency is not a permanent federal executive department, but a temporary body dedicated to reducing government spending, the key goal of which is to slash up to $2 trillion in federal spending by July 2026.

Earlier this week, the new agency stated that it had managed to cut federal spending by approximately $1 billion per day as of January 29, due to an effective halt to "the hiring of people into unnecessary positions, deletion of DEI, and stopping improper payments to foreign organizations."

Attention

West sponsoring atrocities in Russia - Moscow

Zakharova
© Sputnik/Russian Foreign MinistryRussian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has accused Kiev's Western backers of complicity in alleged atrocities committed by Ukrainian troops during their ongoing incursion into Kursk Region. Her remarks on Friday followed investigators' previous accusations that troops have raped and murdered civilians.

Earlier this month, Russian forces discovered human remains in the liberated settlement of Russkoye Porechnoye. The Investigative Committee announced it had identified several Ukrainian soldiers as suspects, with one currently in custody. Zakharova called the images released by the investigators "impossible to watch," and condemned the perpetrators for deliberately targeting vulnerable people.
"The world must understand who the Westerners are sponsoring and that with Western money, with these hundreds of billions of dollars and euros, the Kiev regime is committing these atrocities, which testify to its neo-Nazi nature. What kind of inhuman being tortures elderly civilians, beats them, injures them, and then blows them up with grenades?"
The spokeswoman was referring to the forensic evidence uncovered in the village.

Comment: There is no downside or grand punishment for crimes to humanity when self-proclaimed nations of privilege consider themselves above international law.


Footprints

Trump says Venezuela will accept migrants returned from US

MaduroGrenell
© ReutersVenezuelan state media said Maduro's discussions with Grenell had been respectful
Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post on Saturday that Venezuela had agreed to take back migrants who had come to the United States illegally. The announcement came after a meeting between President Nicolás Maduro and a senior Trump administration official, Richard Grenell that led to the release of six US detainees held in Venezuela.

Trump wrote:
"Venezuela has agreed to receive, back into their Country, all Venezuela illegal aliens who were encamped in the U.S., including gang members of Tren de Aragua. Venezuela has further agreed to supply the transportation back."
Venezuela has not independently announced the deal.

The BBC has reached out to Venezuela's mission to the United Nations for comment. A statement issued by the Venezuelan government said that migration was among the topics discussed by Grenell and Maduro, according to the Venezuelan state-sponsored broadcaster TeleSUR.

The earlier release of the six US detainees was announced on social media by Trump and Grenell. Grenell did not name the six men, who were seen dressed in light blue outfits used by the Venezuelan prison system.

Snakes in Suits

Meghan McCain vows to make it her 'personal mission' to campaign, fundraise against Senators voting against Tulsi Gabbard's confirmation

Meghan McCain, Tulsi Gabbard
© Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for TIME, Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Meghan McCain vowed to make it her "personal mission to help campaign and fundraise" against any Senator who does not vote to confirm Tulsi Gabbard to serve as the Director of National Intelligence (DNI).

"Any Senator who votes against @TulsiGabbard for DNI isn't just going to have a problem with MAGA and Trump," McCain warned. "I will make it my personal mission to help campaign and fundraise against you in your next election. And my people are probably a lot like their people."

McCain's words came days after Gabbard first appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday for her confirmation hearing. During Gabbard's opening statement, she addressed the "lies and smears" that her opponents have attempted to spread about her, noting that her opponents have implied she is "loyal to something or someone other than God" or the Constitution of the United States.

What Gabbard said was:
Now, before I close, I want to warn the American people who are watching at home, you may hear lies and smears in this hearing that will challenge my loyalty to and my love for our country. Those who oppose my nomination imply that I am loyal to something or someone other than God, my own conscience and the Constitution of the United States, accusing me of being Trump's puppet, Putin's puppet, Assad's puppet.

Comment: Meghan McCain may occasionally say things that are agreeable but at the end of the day she's still a swamp rat. Cases in point: